


Now Is Not the Time For a Chick-Flick Moment

by Signe_chan, Trojie



Series: Housemates-verse [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Crack, F/F, M/M, casefic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 11:57:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signe_chan/pseuds/Signe_chan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trojie/pseuds/Trojie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which something is eating people in Holden, Missouri, Dean tries to relive the glory days, Sam ignores a lot of phone calls, Charlie skypes her internet girlfriend, Garth races a database and Killer is a secret weapon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now Is Not the Time For a Chick-Flick Moment

Brian tossed the shotgun in to the front of his truck and snagged his phone. There was a missed call from Mark, but Mark could go hang as far as he was concerned after what happened with the vampires down in Arkansas. He opened a text to Garth, fired off a quick status report. Nothing again. He wondered, sometimes, if that kid didn’t just send him out here on wild goose chases instead of proper monster hunts. Missing people could be anything, didn’t have to be a monster.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flicker. The shotgun was back in his hand and aimed in seconds but the flicker had moved, still just in the corner of his eye but heading away now. He kicked the truck door shut and went to follow it.

The ground was rough and he nearly slipped a few times, almost losing the thing, whatever it was. Luckily he seemed far enough away that it couldn’t hear him curse.

Finally it stopped. He slowed his pace a little, circling around as he got nearer. Eventually he heard low voices, whispers. That didn’t bode well. Things were generally trickier to hunt when they could talk back at you.

Finally, he got close enough to get a look. Looked like a couple of kids, crouching in the mud, and he muttered another curse. Typical, all this way for nothing. He lowered the gun and turned to go when something caught his eye. He turned back and looked, really looked. One of the kids was looking towards him and, it couldn’t be, but it sure as hell looked like he didn’t have a face.

But it couldn’t be ...

Brian raised the shotgun again, hand shaking, as the kid leant closer to the light. It was like someone had wiped him out, surreal and weird and sure as hell not human, but then, what the hell could it be?

That was when he felt the teeth sink into his neck.

***

'Yes, I understand. No. Thank you for letting me know, I appreciate it. Yes. Yes, he was a good agent. I'm sorry, I should go. I have paperwork to - thank you. Yes. Goodbye.'

Garth put the "FBI emergency contact" phone down, and the expression on his face was not good. Dean looked over at Sam, who was clearly having the same thought, and said to Garth, 'You want me to get everyone in here?'

Seeing as Kevin was back at college, 'everyone' in this case actually just meant Charlie, who was in her room doing something mysterious with a computer, which wasn't unusual except for how cagey she was being about it. Garth, Sam and Dean were leaving her to it.

Garth wiped a hand over his face like he could blank it Etch-a-Sketch style, and then looked back at the pair of them with an attempt at his usual grin. 'Yeah. I think we have a situation on our hands.'

Dean laid down the shotgun he'd been cleaning, and went upstairs. Behind him, he could hear Sam starting to clear the kitchen table of the bits of half-wired plug socket and mid-maintenance weaponry that they'd been occupying their evening with.

'Charlie?' he said, knocking at her door. 'Hey, Charlie? All hands on deck, your Highness, we got a supernatural crisis going on. Need you and your laptop downstairs.'

There was some muffled conversation, which was downright odd because they'd had a house policy of making sure everyone knew about all visitors ever since that time real early on when Charlie brought home a kinda noisy girl and ended up having to cover them both with a sheet and explain that she wasn't being attacked by a banshee while Dean and Sam drenched them in holy water.

Look, Winchesters have reasons for being twitchy, okay?

'Charlie?' Dean called again, raising his voice a bit. No response, but more quiet talking. Dean couldn't make out the words. He knocked louder.

Then there was the noise of the laptop closing, and just as Dean was starting to debate defying house rules and bursting in, Charlie wrenched the door open, looking cranky. 'Okay, okay, I'm here, let's do this.'

Dean let her go down the stairs first out of gentlemanly manners, and totally not because he wanted to stick his head round her doorframe and make sure her bedroom was not harbouring intruders or noisy one-night-stands. He waited until she was out of sight and then ducked in.

The room was completely empty.

Weird.

Back in the kitchen Garth and Sam were already sat down and Garth had his notebook and phone out. Dean slid into a chair and waited for the other man to gather his thoughts.

‘Alright, we have a situation,’ he said, setting the book down on an open page. ‘Does anyone remember the missing-kids case Charlie’s database threw up in Holden, Missouri?’ Dean glanced around but neither Sam nor Charlie seemed to recognise it either, so he just shrugged.

‘Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought,’ Garth agreed, with a sigh. ‘I sent a guy down to check it out just in case, though. Can’t hurt to be careful and, well, I just got a call from the local police.’

‘He mess up and get arrested?’ Dean asked, slumping back in his chair. He hated picking up the mess other hunters left when a mission went south.

‘I wish,’ Garth said. ‘They found his vehicle off the road, and his foot about a half mile into some scrub land, and not a hell of a lot else.’

‘That’s rough,’ Sam said with a wince. ‘Who was it?’

Garth made a face. ‘Brian Epting.’

‘Shit!’ Dean exclaimed, sitting up straight. ‘I know that guy. He’s no novice! Whatever this thing is, it must be pretty tough to take out a seasoned hunter like that.’ He hadn't seen Brian in years but he knew his dad had trusted him, and they’d run a few hunts together back in the day. Sure, he’d be older now, but that just meant he was damn good at what he did - that he’d kept hunting all through the Apocalypse and the Leviathan and everything and was still here to talk about it. Well, until now.

‘That’s what I figured,’ Garth agreed. ‘But we’ve got no clue other than, well, looks like the thing eats human flesh, so I guess that narrows it down a little.’

‘I can run a database search on that,’ Charlie agreed. ‘And rank by likelihood based on location, though given how out of whack everything still is that’s really hit and miss.’

‘Good,’ Garth agreed with a nod. ‘Sam, Dean, do you two want to go on the road for this? If this thing's taking out hunters, I don’t want to send anyone I think can’t handle it. You guys are kind of the best at what you do.’

Dean looked over at Sam. Sam was already looking at him, an eyebrow raised. Dean couldn’t help the grin spreading across his face.

‘I’ll go load up my baby.’

***

Lately, the Impala hadn't got much cross-country driving action. Since Garth had started picking up the pieces of Bobby's network, and, as usual, doing everything way over the top, the need to drive across three states for a haunting was kind of reduced. People could be directed to hunts that were near them, or redirected to cases that played to their strengths. Garth tended to keep Dean and Sam on a short leash, too, in a weird way. Sometimes he said it was because he wanted to let someone else get some experience, or because either Dean or Sam had a legit, honest-work, non-hunting job on, and sometimes he said it was because they intimidated people, but every so often, Dean got the feeling that there was something else behind it.

The result was that the Impala's ancient cooler was in the garage, not the back seat, and that most of the arsenal was actually spread around the house instead of where it should be, jumbled up in the trunk. Dean started to go round the house, filching holy water flasks out of the study and Sam's favourite books from the shelves (or from Charlie's room, where they were stacked with her D&D manuals). He scooped most of the weapons out of the gun safe, too.

Ruby's knife was still in the trunk, though, and so were a lot of other things, and Dean knew for a fact that just like he never went anywhere without his Colt, Sam never left the house without his H&K, so it's not like they'd have been unarmed even if they'd had to saddle up in a real hurry.

He debated for a moment and then bundled up the blanket off the sofa in the study. When he made it out to the garage, well loaded-up, he shoved that into the back seat too.

'Y'know,' said Sam, looming in the garage door. 'We may want some backup on this one, dude.'

'Backup?' Dean asked, slamming the Impala's door. 'Us?'

'Whatever this is, it took out Brian. He was Dad's generation, man, he was tough as nails. That tells me it's got a lot of mojo to spare.'

'Okay, sure, but who?' Very few hunters even liked working in pairs, let alone teaming up with people for one-off missions. Dean had heard (and given) enough variations of the 'I'm a lone wolf" speech to know that for sure.

Sam made a kind of weird face and then said, 'Cas?'

And it's not like that was a stupid suggestion, but Dean got the feeling that maybe his baby brother had been talking to Charlie too much again.

He was about to retort when Sam's phone went off. It was second nature to shut the hell up, even mid-sentence, if someone else got a phonecall, so Dean buttoned his lip, but Sam just looked at the caller ID and winced, and cancelled the call without picking up.

'Just think about it,' Sam said, without waiting for Dean to say anything else. 'You want me to grab a few beers for the cooler?' he asked, already stomping back out to the house.

'Yeah,' Dean managed a bit lamely, watching him walk away. The fuck was going on in this house lately? He'd be glad to get back on the road.

***

Charlie slammed her bedroom door, shutting out the madness in the house below. Anyone would think they were moving out, not just heading away for a few days. It took less effort than this to get ready for LARP and they needed tents and things for that. She scanned the room quickly but someone had already been in her books so that meant she was probably safe.

She opened up her laptop.

Skype was still running, her chat window sat open. She didn’t dare start up voice chat again so she fired off a quick apology and started up the database.

The database was kind of her and Garth’s baby, or would be if she could think about her, Garth and a baby without feeling a little sick to her stomach. They’d put a lot of effort into design and working out a system so they could query the database on different criteria. They’d both been adding what they could find in the lore in their downtime and it was fleshing out quite nicely.

Now she put in "flesh eating" and left it to run, flipping back to Skype.

queenofmoons: Sorry, can’t voice chat, things just got a bit crazy here.  
rockstaralias: That’s fine, sweetie <3 Hope it’s nothing too serious?

Charlie hesitated, fingers hanging above the keys. She typed a reply, the full and unbiased truth, and then deleted it all.

queenofmoons: Nothing serious :) Housemate stress, you know.

The database tab started flashing and she flipped back over. Apparently there were a lot of things that ate human flesh. She breathed a curse and set it to narrow down, for now, to the things that were known in North America. She could send that with Sam and Dean and maybe put in a few hours researching the others herself, just in case.

Skype pinged and she flicked back over.

rockstaralias: Ah, the mysterious housemates. You know, you’re going to have to tell me about them soon.  
queenofmoons: I’m not avoiding telling you about them.

Charlie typed back quickly. She kind of hated the lying but, well, she wasn’t ready yet. She knew she needed to be soon but, just for now. Just for a little while longer.

queenofmoons: You’ll meet them soon anyway, right? It’s better to let you get to know them yourself.

rockstaralias: I'm looking forward to it. And other things ;)  
queenofmoons: I just need like, a day or two when all the drama's calmed down and we can get organised. I can't wait for you to be here.  
rockstaralias: Me neither. It'll happen, I promise.

The database tab flickered again, and Charlie sighed.

queenofmoons: Okay I gotta go :( Talk tomorrow?  
rockstaralias: Definitely. Take care of yourself - don't let the housemates get you down! xxx

rockstaralias has logged off

Charlie closed Skype and put her full attention back into the database, or at least tried to. Sometimes it was hard not to daydream. She scanned the list of known people-eaters from the continental United States, trying to keep on-task. The database had thrown up thirteen creatures.

She refused to feel superstitious about that number, and started trying to track down some quick-and-dirty intel on each option instead. The boys would be wanting to leave soon - she wanted them to go as prepared as they could if they were going to go.

***

Sam came back out to the garage with the beer while Dean was making sure the tyres were all pumped up and the oil was topped up, and was totally not fussing over his baby. It's just that this was going to be her first long trip in a while, that's all. He wanted to make sure she was in top form.

'Here,' Sam said, handing over a six pack. 'Are we all good?'

'You in a hurry or something?' Dean asked, kinda joking, stashing the beer in the cooler.

Sam grimaced. 'No, just … I guess I'd rather be on our way, if there's a job that needs doing, you know?'

Dean guessed he did know what that felt like.

'You called Cas?' Sam asked, leaning on the Impala's roof. He had his Concerned Brother face on. They clearly needed to get out on more jobs if one little mysterious instance of human-flesh-eating in Missouri was giving him the jitters.

'Nah,' said Dean, shrugging. 'Let's get there first and see if we need his help before we bother the dude.'

'I guess,' said Sam. 'So, you, me, and the open road again, yeah?'

'Yeah.' Dean looked down at his baby's gleaming paintwork and couldn't help smiling. 'It's been a while.'

'Too long.' Sam rolled his shoulders. 'We're becoming sedentary, man. What happened to us?'

'Responsibilities,' broke in Garth, poking his head round the door. 'Charlie's got intel for you two in the house, and Killer needs a walk.'

'He's your dog,' Dean pointed out to Sam as they followed Garth back inside.

'He's only ever my goddamn dog when he needs a walk or he's crapped on something,' Sam retorted. 'He spends half his life snuggling Garth on the couch, how come Garth never walks him?'

'Gotta man the phones, brother,' said Garth cheerfully back over his shoulder.

Sam rolled his eyes, but when Killer bounded up to him with his leash in his mouth, Dean was pretty sure he cracked a smile. 'Okay, alright, okay,' Sam said, holding up his hands. 'Dean, you take the debrief and I'll get the mutt exercised. Back soon.'

As he clipped Killer's leash onto his collar and walked away, Dean was sure he heard Sam's text-message alert go. Sam clearly didn't.

***

Riding in the Impala, Sam in the passenger seat and his tapes playing, never got old for Dean. It was damn awkward sometimes, but even then there was a kind of familiarity about it, a bone-deep sense of home that somehow the house didn’t seem to have yet. It wasn’t a bad place, he knew he belonged there, but the Impala had been home longer than he could remember.

Sam read the information Charlie had put together for them as they drove and then did a bit more research of his own on his phone. Dean just let himself sit back and enjoy the music. He was going to have to get a tape player in the house, even if the others did laugh at him for it. He’d missed this. Having other people around all the time, well, it was actually great but it meant compromise. It meant keeping it quiet at certain times because Charlie was working or sleeping or someone was hungover or something, and so he didn’t get to listen to his music like he used to. Didn’t get to kick back and drive like he used to, either. No point in traipsing around the country for fun, not at these gas prices. Didn’t get to spend as much time with Sammy either.

No, he missed this. He guessed this would be what it was like if you had a normal life, got your own place, then went back to visit your parents. Comforting and familiar and home.

There was only one thing that might make this even more awesome but, no, Cas had his own work. He was busy in Heaven and Dean wasn’t going to drag him away from that. Not for something as stupid as sitting in the Impala so Dean could catch glimpses of him in the rearview mirror.

“Anything interesting?” he asked when Sam finally put his phone, notebook and pen away, done with research for now.

“All of them look possible,” Sam said with a shrug. “We won’t know until we get there. Though I’m not sure who we’re going to ask since apparently nobody’s seen anything. And there are more suspicious disappearances than bodies.’

‘Start with local law enforcement,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘Victim’s families. At least we can work out if there’s a pattern or not. Easier to hunt something that’s not just mindlessly killing.’

‘We can hope,’ Sam agreed, shifting in his seat. ‘It’s going to be different, anyway. "Sending the best" is all well and good but it’s been awhile since we did a big job.’

‘About time Garth used us properly,’ Dean said with a nod. ‘I mean, not that I object to staying close to home or anything, but a bit of local clean up hardly compares.’

‘I don’t know, he’s probably just trying to give us a break,’ Sam shrugged. ‘I mean, maybe we’ve earned it. We stopped the Apocalypse, closed the gates to Hell forever. Maybe we deserve, just for a while, to fix up the house and some cars.’

‘Not arguing with that,’ Dean said. ‘Still, the hunting’s in the blood. It’s part of who I am. And you gotta admit, it feels damn good to be back out on the road.’

‘Yeah,’ Sam agreed with a grin. ‘Kind of just makes everything else fall away for a while, doesn’t it.’ He stretched out luxuriously as he said it.

‘Something you need to have fall away?’ Dean asked, raising an eyebrow. He wasn’t aware Sam had anything stressful in his life now, not particularly.

‘Nah,” Sam replied, shifting a little and retrieving his phone like Dean had reminded him of something. He checked it, then jammed it back in his pocket. ‘Just the usual everyday stuff.’

Dean shrugged. He knew a brush off when he saw one, but if there was something, if Sammy needed him, he’d ask when he was ready. Pushing only made Sam angry and these days, Dean could trust him to ask if he needed help.

***

Charlie was running the database again. Garth had managed to get the coroner's report on the last vic, by some squirrelly method of his own, and Charlie was sure there had to be something beside 'devours human flesh' that was significant enough for her system to use.

So far she had "human-flesh-eating AND North America -" and was trying to cull details out of the report to add to the string.

"NOT werewolf", she tried, because the heart was intact in what little was left of the chest.

"NOT ghoul", because Garth had clucked over the report and said it wasn't their 'style', whatever that meant. She was trying not to think about what that might mean or how Garth might know. (She was getting better at dipping into this whole hunting thing but sometimes having a vivid imagination but not many actual details was probably a bad thing).

"AND mammal" she added, after another couple of sentences of report. Okay, maybe the vic had a dog or something, but the coroner hadn't been sure those were dog hairs in the wounds. The samples were apparently at the lab - hopefully Garth could get the results when they came back too.

Finally, she hit 'run', and sat back to wait. Downstairs, Killer was yapping, if you could still call it that - his bark was starting to deepen as he got bigger (and bigger, and bigger - Charlie was starting to think they should have taken more notice of how big his paws were even when Sam could hold him in one hand). He probably needed a walk. Sigh. No Skype just yet, then.

***

Sam had fallen asleep in the passenger's seat, lulled, as usual, by the dulcet tones of AC/DC (childhood conditioning, man, you can't beat it). Dean had eased his foot off the gas pedal a bit and was just enjoying the scenery flashing by and the beautifully straight line of road in front of him, and maybe idly wishing for someone to talk to, when there was a flapping noise from the backseat.

‘Hello, Dean.’

‘Cas,’ Dean acknowledged with a nod of his head. ‘Decided to try out hunting with us again after all?’

‘I called at the house but you were not there, I found you,’ Cas said, as though he expected to be rewarded for his work. ‘Where is the case?’

‘Holden, Missouri - about another hour's drive,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘Something flesh eating, that’s really all we’ve got to go on unless the gang back at the house came up with any more clues since we left. It took out a hunter though, so it’s gotta be something strong.’

‘There are many creatures that could fit this description,’ Cas said, shifting in his seat. ‘Many of them are very dangerous. Perhaps I should accompany you for the duration of the hunt?’

‘You’re always welcome,’ Dean agreed, trying to ignore the way his chest tightened at the thought of Cas coming with them. He’d just been missing the guy a little, it wasn’t a big deal. ‘I mean, it’ll be good to have you. You know, for the hunt.’

‘’I would not have you injured if I was able to prevent it,’ Cas said as though he was agreeing, nodding. ‘And it will be good to spend time with you again. I have taken some time to think, and I believe I should spend more time here with you, maybe even reduce my duties in Heaven.’

‘Hey, you don’t have to do that,’ Dean said, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. ‘I know that’s important to you.’ He’d taken away enough shit that was important from people he cared about. Made them make too many choices. He didn’t want Cas doing that here. ‘I mean, you can just drop in as and when.'

‘When I do that, as I have, I become embroiled in the politics of Heaven and miss out on time down here. Sometimes I forget that your life is finite, that there are only so many years left that I may spend here on Earth with you.’

‘Well, yeah,’ Dean agreed with a shrug. He forgot to, sometimes. Forgot that Cas was going to be around long after the Winchesters were gone for good. It was weird to think about, made him think about his own mortality, something he thought about less and less these days. For years it had felt like death was one slip-up away. He hadn’t felt that in a while, though. In fact, he’d almost accepted that he was going to get old, which was another weird thought. And if, despite everything, he was going to get old, then maybe there were worse people to get old with than Cas.

There was a snuffling noise from the passenger's side and Sam woke with a start. 'Huh?' he said, 'What's - oh, hey Cas.'

'Hello, Sam,' said Cas.

'You gonna be coming along for this one, then?' Sam asked, shooting Dean a glance. Dean shrugged. Hey, he didn't call the guy. But he wasn't gonna complain now that he was here.

'It seems as if I could be useful,' Cas said. 'And I would enjoy the time away from Heaven, to be honest.'

Sam nodded, still squinting sidelong at Dean.

'Well, we're glad to have the help,' said Dean, to break the silence before it got weird. A road sign flashed by. 'We're about forty minutes away from the last vic's hometown. Cas, you still got that FBI badge we gave you?'

Cas fished the thing out of a pocket, letting it dangle upside down from his fingers when he found it, and both Dean and Sam snorted. Some things, thank God, never apparently changed.

***

‘I wish I could help,’ the woman said, dabbing at her eyes with the paper tissue. Dean shifted in his seat. He was a little out of practice with the entire ‘watching a woman cry’ thing. ‘It was just, he only went out for some milk. Just some milk. He didn’t even take his wallet because he had change in his pocket. I’m not stupid, I know what everyone’s thinking and I know I’m not as attractive as I used to be, but he didn’t run away.’

‘We believe you,’ Sam reassured, leaning over and smiling. At the other side of Dean, Cas leant forward too, mirroring Sam’s movement, and Dean had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. ‘Can you remember what time it was exactly, ma'am? Or do you know the route he took?’

‘Yes,’ she said, swiping at her eyes again. She was a mess, hair uncombed and a stain on her shirt. Obviously taking the entire thing pretty badly. ‘It was just after dark, I don’t know the exact time, and he went out the bottom of the yard and across the land out back. It’s only a fifteen minute walk but it’s not very well lit. He was probably … probably attacked.’

She began sobbing again at that, clutching the tissue to her nose. Dean shifted back a little, frowning.

‘Do you mind if we check the path out? Look for evidence?’

‘Of course you can,’ the women sobbed. ‘The regular police have been all over it though, they say there’s no signs of a struggle but how do you tell?‘

‘You would look for signs of blood, places where the plant life has been disturbed, snapped twigs or areas where the grass has been flattened,’ Cas supplied. The women looked at him for a second, mouth open, then burst into tears again. Cas looked over, eyebrow raised as if to ask what he’d done wrong. Dean just shrugged. No point getting into it now, at least he hadn’t done anything offensive.

‘I’m sorry, ma'am,’ Sam said, all puppy-dog eyes and serious mouth again. ‘It would be a great help if you could show us the path.’

‘It’s out back,’ she said through her tears, still dabbing at her face with the tissue that was now long past the point of being useful. ‘Just go through the kitchen, there’s a gate at the bottom of the yard.’

‘Thank you for your help,’ Dean said, standing. Sam nodded, following him and promising her they’d let her know as soon as they had any news, then they waited in the door a second for Cas to retrieve a new tissue and bring it to her, squeezing her hand briefly and whispering something in her ear before he finally followed them out of the room.

'Okay, for future reference, they don't want procedural details,' Dean said when Cas got into stride next to him. 'Just let Sam handle the crying bystanders, dude, okay?'

'I thought that the truth would be preferable,' Cas said. 'Pretty lies are still lies, Dean, and a lack of knowledge can hurt. If it were me, I would want more than rumours that he'd run away.'

Dean wasn't sure what Cas was trying to get at, but he supposed the guy had a point. Not knowing sucked, and hadn't he been there enough times to understand?

'What did you say to her?' Sam asked, leading the way through the garden.

'Just that her husband loved her, truly - I said that the evidence pointed to it. That was correct, wasn't it?' Cas asked. 'There was no taint of adultery in that house. I am sure she spoke truthfully - that he was only on a minor errand.'

'Yeah, Cas, that was fine,' Sam said, twitching back to give Dean a bit of a look. 'Just keep it vague on the 'evidence', yeah?'

They were nearly at the gate. So far, so normal suburban garden. And through the gate it was all pretty normal as well. Up until a point.

'The tracks stop here,' said Dean, crouching down. Sam was nodding. 'This dude could fly?'

'If he was human, that is unlikely,' Cas pointed out.

'So, here's where he became monster chow then,' Dean said. 'He still hasn't turned up?'

'Nope,' said Sam. 'But Garth sent Brian up here after this dude disappeared, and he turned up in a nice pulpy mess in the coroner's office.'

'And you tend to get one creature feature per town,' Dean finished. He straightened up. 'Okay, well, let's do the usual then. EMF, sulphur, whole nine yards.'

'I can save you the trouble,' Cas said, looking worried. 'This is no haunting or demonic possession. This is something else entirely. I'm not sure that it's safe for you to be here.'

'Kind of in the job description, though,' said Dean, pretending the look in Cas's eyes didn't give him the shits. 'We're here. We gotta see this through.'

***

‘I just got a call from the boys,’ Garth said, sticking his head around the bedroom door. Charlie actually physically jumped, which was kind of embarrassing, and she reached out on instinct to slam the lip of her laptop down.

‘Oh my God, Garth. Doors! Knocking! How many times do we have to have this conversation?’

‘What were you doing?’ Garth asked, ignoring her protest and walking into her room. He made a grab for her computer but she was quicker, sacrificing the other things on her desk to sweep it up and keep it away from him.

‘Nothing,’ she protested, clutching the thing tight. He raised an eyebrow and she tried to think quickly. ‘Fine, it was porn. Porn that you wouldn’t like at all. Definitely not your kind of thing. What did Sam and Dean say?’

‘Well, they’ve been to the site of the first disappearance,’ Garth said, shrugging. ‘Said there was nothing. The guy was walking to the shop but the path kind of ended in the middle of nowhere.’

‘Well, that’s something,’ Charlie objected. ‘Tracks don’t normally just end in the middle of nowhere. Why did he even go down there? Maybe he was lying, or doing something. Maybe he was collaborating with the monster ...’

‘Could be,’ Garth agreed. ‘Cas is with them, anyway. He says it’s not a ghost or ghoul and apparently he’s pretty worried. Maybe focus the research in on things that are _really_ powerful if it’s freaking Cas out?’

‘Yes, absolutely. I’ll do that now,’ Charlie said, stepping forward and laying her laptop on the desk. Garth stayed there for a second idly examining her replica wands but when she prodded at him he finally turned and left, shutting the door behind her.

She couldn’t get the laptop open fast enough, foot tapping as she waited for everything to load again and for her internet connection to come back. As soon as it did she opened skype up.

queenofmoons: OMFG I’m so sorry. My housemates are such idiots.  
queenofmoons: One just came barging in here.  
rockstaralias: Well, I hope they’ve learnt to respect a closed door by the time I come visit ;)

****

There wasn't much more they could do with a crime-scene that was so perfectly free of evidence of any crime, so they went back up to the house and Sam stepped outside to call Garth. Cas was pointedly being the silent backup. Dean left his card with the grieving probably-widow and pushed Cas back out the front door. He got back into the Impala with some serious relief. Crying women definitely still not his thing. 'I'm thinking lunch,' he said. 'Or dinner. What meal are we up to?'

'Does it matter? You'll have a cheeseburger, right?' Sam said, rolling his eyes. 'Garth says he and Charlie are onto the whole monster identity thing and they'll let us know what their best guess is ASAP. Until then, I guess we hit the morgue for Brian before they bury what's left of the guy, and try and figure out more details.'

'Sounds like a plan,' Dean said, starting the car up. 'But first, food.'

Cas leant forward in the back seat so that his head was between Sam and Dean's. 'It may also be useful to find the site of Brian's untimely death,' he said. 'If details are what we're searching for.'

'That's right,' Dean said, grinning and pulling the Impala out into the traffic. 'We'll make a hunter of you yet, right, Sam?'

Sam was looking down at his phone again with a face like he was Bambi and someone had just shot his Mom. 'Jeez, you ever gonna answer that damn thing?' Dean asked, starting to get a bit impatient. 'What if it's a case, man?'

Sam shoved the phone back in his pocket. 'It isn't,' he said. 'It's not important. So. Lunch? Dinner?'

'I believe the intermediate meal is known as 'afternoon tea' in some countries,' Cas supplied. 'It would be a logical compromise for now.'

Dean resisted the urge to smack his forehead on the steering wheel. On the one hand, points to Cas for the distraction, but on the other hand, this whole Sam-phone thing was starting to get to him. Ignoring the phones was never a good idea. He'd have thought Sam, of all people, would know that.

***

‘Sure, you can look at him,’ the attendant said, leading them down into the morgue. He had the bored air of a man who’d been doing this job for too long and had lost the ability to be surprised by anything. ‘Don’t know that it’s going to help you a whole lot. There wasn’t really much left of him.’

‘That’s alright,’ Sam said, all easy smiles. ‘Any details we can pick up might help with this.’

‘Sure,’ the man agreed. ‘I’d have just thought this was below your pay grade. This is an animal attack sure as I ever saw one, and I’ve seen plenty. The FBI arresting wild animals now?’

‘We just like to keep our options open,’ Dean interpreted, stepping forward. ‘Where is he?’

‘Over here,’ the attendant said, reaching over and yanking one of the drawers open. For what was left of Brian, a whole drawer was definitely overkill. Dean squinted at it. There was … most of a ribcage. The foot that was mentioned in the report. Some … chunky soup, pretty much, and not a lot else.

‘Look, here,’ the attendant said, poking at the severed flesh with his pen. ‘You can see evidence of teeth marks. Musta been something big, but it broke the bone, so you don’t get any points for working that out.’

‘Any idea what animal caused this, exactly?’ Sam asked, drawing the man away. As he did Cas stepped up, staring intently at the remains. As they’d agreed he didn’t talk, just looked, and after a few seconds he reached out, touching tissue quickly and withdrawing his hand. He then raised an eyebrow and give Dean a significant look to show he was done.

‘I think we’ve seen enough,’ Dean said, stepping back and pushing the drawer closed.

‘It’s pretty nasty,’ the attendant agreed. ‘You work in this field long enough, you get a stomach for messes like this.’

‘Have you see anything like this before?’ Dean asked. ‘I mean, not just animal attacks, anything exactly like this?’

‘Well, not before a week ago. Got someone else brought in, same thing. I can pull the file for you.’

‘Thank you,’ Sam said quickly, throwing Dean a significant look. Dean nodded to Cas and lead him out of the lab and away from anyone who could hear them.

‘So, spill. What did you find?’ he asked, stepping in close so Cas could speak quietly.

‘It was definitely a creature of supernatural origin. I took a few hairs from the wound. I believe I should take these to Charlie and Garth, I cannot identify them entirely myself. Perhaps they can help.’

‘Good plan,’ Dean agreed. ‘You go, we’ll hold down the fort here.’

Cas nodded. Dean expected him to just go but instead he hesitated for a second, lifted his hand and laid it on Dean’s arm. He squeezed lightly.

‘Stay safe,’ he said, like he expected Dean to throw himself into danger the second he was gone. And then he left.

***

Garth knocked at Charlie's door, which was a win in and of itself. 'Come in,' she called. The Skype date had ended naturally fifteen minutes ago because they both had things to do, so it was safe. Figures Garth would learn to knock after it wasn't so desperately important any more, but oh well.

He came in with a cup of coffee and something that actually looked suspiciously like a muffin. 'You baked?' Charlie asked him, needing to know before she risked touching it.

'No, I went to the store,' Garth said, rolling his eyes. 'Thanks for the vote of confidence. I made the coffee though, because I am awesome like that. Have we got anything more on the database?'

'Well, adding 'mammal' knocked off a few more things,' Charlie said, shrugging and turning the computer so he could see. 'Sounds like it's probably not a yeti, though, but I don't have anything concrete to use as a term to rule it out yet.'

Garth patted her on the shoulder in his usual attempted-comfort way. 'We'll get there,' he said.

'Yeah, and one day we'll all be half-cyborg,' Charlie pointed out. 'Bets on which comes first?'

Garth grinned at her and pointed at the coffee. 'Caffeine and positive thinking, my friend. That's what gets you through.' He sauntered off.

Charlie buried her face in the mug. Garth was right. He did make pretty awesome coffee.

Downstairs Killer suddenly started barking the 'OMG PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE' bark. Leaving the database to do its thing for a while, Charlie decided to go down and see who it was

***

'It's a goddamn field,' Dean said as they pulled up to the place the police report said Brian's car was found.

'Scrubland,' Sam corrected.

'Whatever, it's waist-high plants and a pain in the ass to search,' Dean said.

'On the other hand, most shit big enough to tear a man apart like that is probably big enough that we'd see it coming here,' Sam countered, clearly trying to look on the bright side. He made a face. 'Although, that's weird enough on its own. Why the hell would Brian have not seen it coming?'

'Man, I do not like a single goddamn thing about this case,' Dean said, opening the door and getting out. 'None of it makes sense.'

‘It doesn’t match anything in Charlie’s notes, either. Not exactly. I mean, I guess we could have more than one type of supernatural creature working together ...’ Sam shrugged, showing exactly how likely he thought that possibility was.

‘I really hope not,’ Dean grumbled. ‘About the only thing we got going for us is that 99% of the time these things hate each other as much as they hate us. If we closed the door to Hell only for the monsters to start getting chummy...’

‘There is only one creature at work here,’ Cas said, and Dean nearly jumped out of his damn skin. He spun to find Cas stood just behind him.

‘Damnit, Cas, warn a guy,’ he said.

‘I am sorry,’ Cas said, though he didn’t look it. ‘I am sensing one strong presence. However, I have not yet been able to determine what that presence is,’ and he looked so damn angry, like it was a slight against his whole character that he hadn’t worked this out yet. Dean reached out without thinking, laying a hand on his arm.

‘Hey, don’t sweat. We’re going to get this. Charlie and Garth have anything new?’

‘Not at this point,’ Cas said with a sigh. ‘Though they are continuing to work. I left the evidence we have gathered with them.’

‘At least they can work on it,’ Dean said, rubbing his thumb over Cas’s arm. It felt nice. ‘We’ll work this out.’

Sam was watching them with a strange expression. 'Are we gonna need to book two motel rooms here?'

'What for?' Cas asked. 'I don't need to sleep,' he pointed out.

'It wasn't sleep I was worried about,' Sam muttered, but then he shrugged, squared his shoulders, and apparently decided to change the subject. 'Don't suppose you have a mystical ability to remotely detect body parts, do you Cas?' he asked.

'Human body parts are not particularly mystical,' Cas said. 'I'm afraid we must use our eyes for this particular job.'

'Fan out then, I guess?' Sam said, shrugging again.

'Yeah,' said Dean. Something was telling him to head out towards the hedge-y border to this particular block of land. Hunter instincts, man. Sometimes they made no sense, but they usually threw up solid results, so he started trudging out in that direction. 'Yell if you find anything, everyone,' he said, moving off.

It got quiet quick, now that no-one was talking. The only thing Dean could hear was the rustle and crunch of dry grass and bushes as the three of them started to quarter the ground. It was eerie, and it shouldn't have been. Open country and daylight should be the best possible scenario.

Dean stopped walking when he realised it was only his own footsteps he could hear, and he turned around to find that the terrain must be hillier than he thought or he'd walked further than he realised or something because Sam and Cas were both nowhere to be seen. The sky was greying like evening or rain were coming. And it was deathly silent.

He was not going to panic. Just because Brian ended up in bits did not mean anyone else was going to. Cas was an angel and Sam was the (second) best goddamn hunter in the business. He just had to retrace his steps, right, and find them before anything else did.

He reached into his waistband and pulled out his gun. Slowly he turned on the spot, surveying the fields. Thing was, from where he was standing, they all looked the same. In fact, suddenly, he wasn’t even sure which direction he’d come from. Wasn’t sure which direction he should head in for the road.

It was getting dark. Way faster than it should be, like someone was draping a blanket over the world.

‘Sam!’ Dean shouted, gripping the gun. The words seemed to echo. ‘Cas.’

No reply, but a movement out of the corner of his eye. He spun, gun raised, but there was nothing there. Just the same fields going endlessly into the distance. It was an illusion, it had to be.

Slowly he crouched down, touched the dirt as if physically grounding himself could help. He pinched himself but nothing changed.

‘Alright, you son of a bitch,’ he grumbled, ‘You’re not going to get me this easily.’

He couldn’t escape the illusion, that was clear, but he wasn’t going to go blundering about any more, either. He had ammunition, he could wait this thing out.

The dark continued to creep up. He took the flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on. It didn’t seem to have as much effect on these shadows as it did on regular shadows. Every few minutes he’d pinch himself. Take his phone out and check it but he didn’t have a signal. He sent a text anyway in case it was only making him think he had no signal.

There was a quick movement to his right and he fired before he thought, low so if it was Sam or Cas he wouldn’t hurt them too badly. Apparently he hit something, because it made a little pained sound that wasn’t human and for a second the scenery flickered.

That second was all it took for Dean to get his bearings, he was in reality just past the hedge, Sam and Cas nearby. He turned quickly and ran for the car, throwing himself into the passenger seat as Sam yanked the driver's side door open and Cas reached out, laying a hand on the car and pulling them all back on to the main road.

'Shit,' Sam panted. 'The hell was that?'

Dean leaned forward to press his forehead to the cool dashboard. The sky through the windshield was still blue. It was midafternoon, not midnight. 'That was us being messed with,' he growled. 'Get Garth back on the line. I think we've got some more search terms for them.'

***

Charlie had moved her laptop to the big desk in the study and was frantically typing while Garth, on the phone, paced round and round like a skinny bear in a too-small cage.

'- all went dark, okay, and the sound dropped away too -'

AND sensory deprivation? Charlie wondered, poking at her search string. Or AND perception alteration? She put them both down and waited for more.

'- shot it? What kind of - standard rounds, good, okay -'

AND vulnerable/standard ammo

'- messed with all three of you at once? Cas too? -'

NOT vulnerable/angel

'And you're all okay?' Garth asked, pausing in his pacing and tapping at the desk. 'No injuries, no-one's compromised as far as you can tell? Good. Okay. Hang in there, buddy, we're on it. Alright. I'll get back to you ASAP.'

He hung up and turned back to Charlie. 'I take it you got most of that?'

'The monster messed with their heads, Cas included, and someone shot it?' Charlie flipped the laptop so he could see her new search terms.

Garth nodded. 'Pretty much bang on, sister. Sounds more like perception alteration than sensory deprivation though,' he added, poking at that sentence on the screen.

'Okay,' said Charlie, pulling the computer back towards herself and making the change. 'I'll stick this in and we'll see what falls out, yes?'

Garth was chewing at his lip. 'Sounds like a plan.'

'Something else you want me to add?' Charlie prompted when he didn't say anything more. He looked pretty thoughtful, for Garth.

'Nah,' he said, but he did go over to the nearest bookcase. 'I just got a hunch, that's all. You do your thing, I'll see if this pans out. Might at least get you something to rule out. '

***

Dean shut the door behind them, locked it and started to pour a line of salt along it. Sam was already scrawling wards across the walls. The motel manager was going to be pissed as hell but they wouldn’t have to deal with that until tomorrow and Dean wasn’t willing to leave them exposed.

Cas was sat in on one of the beds, his hands folded in his lap. He was staring at them intently. He’d sat down when they came in the room and not moved since, even as Dean and Sam moved around him fetching supplies they’d need to stay locked in the room until the next morning. A part of Dean still felt guilty about that, locking themselves away. A little voice kept asking him what he’d do if someone else went missing tonight, someone he might have saved. Then he looked at Cas.

‘I was powerless against it,’ Cas said, his voice low. Dean finished his line of salt and set the can down. Sam was still painting so he left him to it, heading over and sitting on the bed across from Cas.

‘You weren’t powerless. You saved our asses.’

‘No, when you broke its concentration I was able to move us. In the face of the actual creature I was powerless. You should go. Both of you.’ He looked up at Sam and Sam slowed, setting his brush down and moving towards them cautiously. ‘This is too dangerous. You should return to safety.’

‘Yeah, not happening,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘Right, Sammy?’

‘Right,’ Sam agreed. ‘You just told us your powers aren’t any use here, we’re not going to leave you to fight whatever it is alone.’

‘Being horribly outclassed is pretty normal for us,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘I get that it’s new to you, but we’re not going to run away because something scares us.’

‘I am not afraid,’ Cas said, straightening his back.

‘Hey, we know,’ Sam said, turning and walking back to the wards. ‘Now, will one of you two get over here and help me finish this?’

‘Is there any point?’ Cas asked. ‘We do not know that these protections will have any effect.’

‘They’ll make me feel better,’ Dean said, standing and grabbing a paint brush. He started to reach for the pot of paint when Sam's phone went off. Sam made a disgruntled noise, but his hands were full. Dean pulled the phone out of his brother's pocket quickly, hoping for Garth. He was going to feel one hell of a lot better once he knew what this thing was. In his experience, knowing what the hell you were trying to kill was 90% of the battle. It wasn’t Garth, though. It was Kevin, weirdly. He connected the call.

‘Hey,’ he said, ‘You alright kid?’

‘Oh. Uh. Hi, Dean. Um, I was phoning to ask you that,’ Kevin replied. ‘I just phoned the house. Garth was talking about some new monster, something more powerful than Cas?’

‘It’s nothing you need to worry about,’ Dean said. ‘You just concentrate on studying and don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine.’

‘Can I talk to Sam?’ Kevin asked. Figured, Kevin has always been better at taking orders from Sam than from Dean. Those two, they got a bit joined at the hip sometimes. And it was Sam's phone, made sense that Kevin wanted to talk to Sam.

‘Yeah, sure. Sammy, Kevin’s on the phone. Wants to talk to you.’

‘I can’t right now,’ Sam snapped, not looking away from the sigil he was painting. ‘These wards need to be done.’

‘You can take five minutes to say hi to Kevin, can’t you?’ Dean asked, waving the phone. Sam didn’t look, just dipped his brush in the paint and carried on with his wards. Irritated, Dean put the phone back to his ear.

‘Sorry, Kevin. He’s working on something and being an ass. I’ll get him to call you when he’s done.’

‘Thanks,’ Kevin said, hanging up before Dean could think of anything else to say. That wasn’t like Kevin. He wasn’t the kind to hang up on people.

Then again, Sam wasn't usually the kind to ignore a phone call, either. Dean eyed his brother, trying to weigh up whether or not now would be the time to initiate the chick-flick moment and find out what the hell was going on. But the set of Sam's shoulders told him all he'd get would be denial and yelling if he tried it right now. So he just put the phone back in Sam's jacket pocket and picked up a brush of his own.

'I'm not trying to be a dick,' Sam said eventually, awkwardly. 'I'm just trying to stay focused, that's all.'

It sounded like a legitimate reason, kinda. Not really. But it'd have to do for now. Dean just nodded and left him to it.

***

Charlie had tweaked her search string what felt like a million times. That many search terms on a database still (despite her best efforts) as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof was always going to be a difficult ask. Still, it had been whirring away on this particular variant for ten minutes now, which at least meant that a) her syntax was flying and b) there was actually something in the database for it to find.

Or the laptop had crashed. That was probably an option too.

She was still in the study, using the big desk, and in the armchair in the corner Garth had basically bricked himself in with occult texts. He was muttering under his breath a lot. She wasn't sure if she should be thankful for the crosscheck or kind of irritated that he didn't trust their baby to come up with the right answer.

'You know, this database should know everything you do,' she pointed out the next time Garth looked up with that half-crazy 'processing' look in his eyes that she tended to categorise as the human equivalent of the spinning beachball of death. 'Technically, you should probably reach the answer at the same time. And that would be kinda cool.'

'Same knowledge, different …. processors,' said Garth, snapping out of his little trance. 'It's about making connections, sister, and we need to get the intel out to our boys ASAP. So I reckon we run with every option we got.'

And she had to admit, he kinda had a point. 'Okay, well,' she said, getting up and stretching her back out, 'You want a coffee while you process, Deep Thought?'

***

Cas was pacing. It made sleeping kind of difficult, although apparently Sam didn't think so. He’d been the first to object when Cas had declared his intention of watching over them for the night, but now he was snoring away and Dean was lying here, listening to footsteps.

‘Cas,’ he hissed. Cas’s footsteps slowed then stopped next to Dean’s bed. Dean thought about reaching over to flick on the light but he didn’t want to risk waking Sam. ‘You know, you don’t need to stay here. You’ve got things to do. Just go.’

‘I will not leave you,’ Cas said, the same argument he’d been using all night. ‘Whatever is out there is dangerous.’

‘Yeah, tell me something I don’t know,’ Dean growled. ‘But I can’t sleep with you pacing about. Not getting any sleep is about as bad for me as anything else you can throw at me so, you know, just sit down or something.’

Cas was silent for a second, then sat slowly on the edge of Dean’s bed. That sure as hell wasn't what Dean had meant, definitely, but at least Cas had done what he suggested.

‘See, bet that’s more comfortable for you too,’ he said, pulling the blankets more tightly around himself.

‘It is not a matter of comfort,’ Cas said. ‘I was thinking. You often pace when you think.’

‘Yeah, but not when everyone else is sleeping. You trying to work out what this thing is?’

‘Partially,’ Cas agreed. ‘I am also attempting to think of a way to make you leave the area. So far I have not thought of any argument you will not counter.’

‘That’s because we’re not going,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘I mean, don’t get me wrong, being pie for monsters isn’t on my to do list. Thing is, we’ve got to work it out. So we will. Garth and Charlie’ll come through for us or we’ll figure it out. Something, anyway.’

‘How can you be so calm?’ Cas asked, and he sounded genuinely curious. ‘The thing that attacked us today, it could come back at any time. It could kill you, I could not stop it. How are you not afraid?’

‘Kind of used to it,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘I mean, most of the shit we fight has kind of got us outclassed. Me and Sam, we’re used to facing stuff like this down. I guess it’s been awhile for you since you’ve been in a fight you didn’t know you could win, though.’

‘Yes,’ Cas agreed. ‘And when that did last happen the world was crumbling around me and it didn’t seem so important.’

‘Well, sorry and all, but there’s no trick to it. All you can do is try to relax.’

‘Relax?’ Cas asked, incredulous.

‘Yeah. Forget about it for a while. I mean, we’ve done everything we can to protect this place and getting stressed about it never did me and Sam any good. And hell, we’ve tried every way to get stressed about things there is. So just ... just relax.’

‘Maybe I should,’ Cas agreed. He shifted a little and Dean thought he was going to stand, maybe go out and blow off some steam. Instead he moved so he was lying on the bed next to Dean. Not touching, but almost. Close enough that if Dean shifted, even just a little, they’d be touching. ‘This does feel better.’ Cas said.

For a few seconds Dean contemplated kicking up a fuss. Pushing him off the bed and telling him that’s not what he’d meant. But, really, what was the point? If Cas was going to stop pacing, well, who was he to complain? He just grunted, turned so he wasn’t facing Cas, and shut his eyes.

He fell asleep surprisingly quickly after that.

***

_\- it was the heeeeaat of the moment -_

Dean startled awake, and it was still dark, that couldn't be the alarm clock because they hadn't set it - he was too warm and something was practically pinning him down, struggling as much as he was, and across the room, Sam was saying 'Fuck, Dean? Dean? _Dean!_ -' as if there was some kind of deadly emergency.

_\- telling me what your heart meant -_

There was also a frantic vibrating noise from the little side table in between the two beds, which was what tipped Dean off that it was a phone going off, and at the same time the thing pinning him down appeared to get its limbs under control and rolled off to one side, saying 'What's happening? I seem to have passed out -'

\- and Dean grabbed the phone.

'What the fuck?' was not a traditional greeting but it seemed really goddamn appropriate.

'Dean! My man! We know what you're hunting!' Garth sounded tinny and far away. Dean tried to process. Checking the clock, it was three am.

He wiped a hand across his face, attempting to wake up properly. 'And you couldn't have called us over breakfast?' On the other side of the room, Sam was breathing harder than he should have been and staring at Dean like he'd seen a ghost. Fuck, why was that song so goddamn familiar? More importantly, why was it suddenly his ringtone? He _had_ to stop letting Garth mess with his phone.

'Well excuse us for thinking you might need to know ASAP,' said Charlie, so, clearly on speakerphone back at the house. Dean did likewise and put the phone down on the side table so that everyone could listen in. 'We've been up all night, y'know,' she added.

'We have been in bed,' Cas said. There was a moment of silence.

'Is Sam there too or did he get a separate room?' Charlie asked a little more cautiously than Dean liked. Goddammit, there was _nothing going on_.

'I'm here,' said Sam hoarsely. 'We're all here.'

'Well, good,' said Garth. 'Because we got news for you. The thing you're hunting? It's a Kumiho. The Korean equivalent of a kitsune.'

'Kitsune?' Sam said, before Dean could jump in. 'Okay, but, we've hunted kitsune before, guys, and this doesn't fit. Totally the wrong MO.'

'I said equivalent,' Garth pointed out. 'Not the same thing. For a start, the pituitary gland's just the icing on the cake for this thing, human-flesh-wise, and also? More of a trickster-type than a straight-up predator. I reckon that deal in the field yesterday was it sizing you up.'

'Oh great,' said Dean. 'So now we're on the menu, is that it? Please tell me this thing just needs a good old-fashioned stabbing?'

'Basically,' said Charlie. 'But we're not sure what with yet. We'll let you know as soon as we do.'

'So, that's it?' Dean asked. 'Anything else? Seriously, guys, any more details?'

'It's fox-shaped,' Garth offered. 'Most of the time. That's about all we got so far. We're checking back in the books as fast as we can, I swear.'

'You guys should go back to … bed,' said Charlie, and Dean could _hear_ the mischief in her voice. He was never going to live this down.

'... okay. Thank you,' said Sam. 'We'll do a bit of our own checking up too. Keep us posted.' He reached out and hung up the phone, and then yanked Dean into the kind of hug they hadn't had in a few years. Like, the thank-God-you're-still-alive hug. Which seemed a bit overkill. Or a really bad joke or something.

Dean braced himself for whatever it was Sam was about to say on the subject of the whole Dean-and-Cas bedsharing escapade, but all his brother said was, muffled into Dean's shoulder, 'Dude. Change your _fucking ringtone_ , please.'

***

Charlie didn’t do mornings. Not even a little. The men in the house claimed not to do mornings but if there was a threat they’d be out of bed immediately and Sam and Dean had a very skewed perspective of what constituted a morning anyway given that they normally slept for five hours tops, as and when they could. But Charlie really didn’t do mornings. Not even an impending apocalypse would have got any sense out of her before her second cup of coffee.

When she did become aware of her surroundings again that morning she did so with a grin as memories of last night trickled through with the stunning possibility that Cas and Dean had maybe got their act together. A long shot with Sam still in the room, but still.

She grinned to herself smugly. She was completely claiming responsibility for any and all success between them. This had to be a step in the right direction. Dean would thank her eventually, once he realised he deserved a little happiness too.

She knew she might be waiting awhile for that. But still.

‘Charlie,’ Garth shouted. She took her coffee and shuffled off into the sitting room to find Garth surrounded by various textbooks and empty mugs, like he’d been sat up all night.

‘Did you sleep at all?’ she asked, poking at a book with her toe. ‘And did you, like, use a fresh cup for every cup of coffee because you seriously don’t have to do that.’

‘I need you to do me a favour,’ Garth said, extracting himself from his pit of research. ‘I think I’ve got this thing worked out, but I’m going to have to drive out there.’

She sighed. ‘Oh great, I should have known you’d need something complicated to kill the thing. We’re not going to have to touch any human remains, are we? I hate dealing with human remains before lunch.’

‘No. Actually, an iron blade should do it. The trick is getting close enough. They’re incredibly powerful tricksters, they’re not just going to stand in the middle of a field and let you stab them.’

‘So, they need you why? No offense, Garth, but you’re as gullible as the rest of us.’

‘They don’t need me, I’m taking Killer to them. Apparently dogs are really good at detecting these things.’

‘Garth, he’s just a puppy,’ Charlie said, frowning. ‘You can’t take him into danger.’

‘Like I’d let him get hurt,’ Garth said, a hurt expression on his face. ‘I’ll take great care of him. He’ll love a road trip, get to sniff out some new things. It’ll be a blast. I need _you_ to look after the command centre.’

‘Whatever,’ she agreed with a sigh. Killer was sat at the side of the couch, head on the side, wagging his tail as if he’s just understood what Garth said and approved. Charlie kind of hoped for Sam’s sake the puppy didn’t get eaten. He didn’t deal too well with loss. ‘So, show me again which phones I need to answer.’

***

Breakfast was something made out of bacon, coffee, Sam's bleary-eyed stare across the diner table, and Cas tapping his feet because Dean had forced him to sit down and he couldn't pace.

'Cas, I swear, if you don't stop fidgeting I'm gonna tie you up and drop you in a hole somewhere. We aren't leaving, so stop trying to work out ways to make us.'

Cas looked offended. 'I'm merely trying to work out ways to kill this Kumiho,' he said. 'Repetitive movements are stimulating to my vessel's brain, and I find that helpful and soothing when I am trying to think. I'm well aware that the legendary Winchester stubbornness is going to prevent us making a timely escape.'

'We don't leave monsters to it just because they're more powerful than us,' Sam started, but Dean waved a hand at him.

'I already tried, dude. I think he gets the point.' But Dean squinted, trying to think. Cas was right - they did need to start coming up with some options. 'So we roughly know where it is, yes?' he said, and now he was starting to tap his feet too, goddammit.

'Roughly,' Sam said, making a face. 'I doubt somehow that it has a real special tie to a scrubby backlot in Holden, Missouri.'

'Yeah, but if it's safe there it'll probably hang out until it needs to move, right? Even creatures like having a home base. So now we just gotta sit tight and wait for Garth and Charlie to get back to us with what to stab it with, and we're golden.'

'And how to prevent it from getting inside our heads for long enough that we can undertake the stabbing,' Cas pointed out. 'That may well be the more difficult part.'

Sam's ringtone sounded - just a constant beep-beep, beep-beep - and he pulled it out of his pocket. For about the fifteenth time this trip, he scowled and didn't answer it. Okay, so maybe Dean didn't have any leads on the Kumiho right now but he was pretty sure he had a hunch about what Sam's caller ID was reading.

'Dude, is that Kevin again? Why are you ignoring the kid?'

Sam visibly winced when Dean said 'kid'. 'I'm not,' he said.

'Well that's just plain bullshit, because you keep dropping his calls, don't you. I mean, unless there's two people you're not talking to? What's this about, Sammy? You guys seemed to get on fine back at Apocalypsemas. But since he went back to school - ' Dean had a sudden thought. What if this was some kind of sour grapes? 'Dude, if this is about - if you want to go back to school too ...'

Sam stared at him like the thought hadn't even occurred. 'No! Jeez, Dean, just … look, no-one's having an emergency, we know where he is, everything's fine. I just don't have time to be constantly helping him with his homework or whatever. Let me cut the apron strings.'

'I don't believe Kevin frequently requires help with his homework,' Cas said thoughtfully. 'His grades are excellent. Perhaps he just wants reassurance that everything is well at home?'

Sam dropped his head into his hands and groaned. 'Can we please go back to the stabbing conversation? I liked that one better.'

The waitress chose that moment to come by with the check. She gave Sam a very strange look.

Dean tried to wink at her again. It didn't work.

***

The officer on the desk at the police station nodded at them in recognition. That’s what Dean liked about these small town forces, they remembered you. Sure, that could be a curse as well as a blessing but, whatever.

‘Hey,’ he said, going over to lean on the desk. Cas moved after him, stopping just that little bit too close behind him. Cas seemed to have decided that, for now, since he couldn’t make Sam and Dean leave, he was going to stay as close to them as physically possible. Probably to protect them, if the suspicious glare he was giving the officer was anything to go by. Just great. ‘Anything new come in?’

‘Hasn’t anyone told you yet?’ the guy asked, frowning. ‘We got another last night. Disappearance, that is. An old woman this time. We got the call about two am. Apparently she got out of her bed and just, well, left. She’s got dementia though so, well, we’ve sent out a search party but they’ve got nothing.’

‘Brilliant,’ Dean said. He wished he’d got closer to the thing last night. One more to add to the list of people he hadn’t saved. Hell, he’d probably pissed the creature off even more by shooting it. ‘You got details for us?’

‘Sure do,’ the officer said, looking through the papers on his desk. ‘I’ve definitely got it around here somewhere. We’ve got a team up at the site now, talking to the kids and all. It was the daughter found her gone. Got woken up by the draft blowing through the house where she’d gone out.’

‘Thanks,’ Dean said, glancing over his shoulder at Cas. Cas was looking back at the door and Sam was watching the both of them with an amused smile on his lips. Perfect. At least Charlie wasn’t here right now to see and mock him.

‘Ah, here is it,’ the officer said finally, producing a print out from under a stack of folders. ‘Boden’s the women you want to talk to. She’s heading up the case, I think you just missed her yesterday.’

‘Thanks for all your help,’ Sam said as Dean snatched the printout. The place wasn’t far off where they’d found the thing last night. He hadn’t injured it that badly, maybe it had found a bit of land and now it was staying there. It was definitely looking like a trickster, anyway. Luring an old woman out of her house at night.

‘No problem at all,’ the officer said, giving them a lazy wave as they turned and left the station.

***

Even after Garth's thorough briefing on the seven different phones, Charlie still jumped with fright when the FBI one started ringing.

'H- hello?' she said, picking it up, and then could have kicked herself. Confidence, Garth had said. Doesn't matter who you are or what you sound like as long as you mostly just sound like you're meant to be there. She coughed. 'I'm sorry. Hello, this is Director Algar's office. How may I help?'

'I'm calling from the Sheriff's office out in Holden, Missouri - I have some coroner's lab reports here for the Director; may I speak with him?'

'I'm afraid he's on leave until tomorrow - I'm standing in for him at the moment,' said Charlie, getting into the whole 'acting' thing and putting on her Queen of Moons voice. Hell, this was basically LARPing the FBI, wasn't it? And that was totally not a federal crime … 'I do have … yes, the notes he left for me indicated that he was expecting your call - we're on kind of a tight schedule here, is there any chance I could have copies of those reports emailed to our office?'

She gave out the email address. She even complimented the guy on the other end for his efficiency. And then she put the phone down and pretty much deflated into the study's one armchair when the adrenaline wore off.

Still, that was pretty freaking sweet. She could get used to this hunter thing, if only it paid as well as her actual job. Speaking of which … she pulled her laptop off the desk and onto her knees, and opened a new window. The blinking cursor wasn't as exciting as an old book full of mysterious lore, but she might as well get something useful done this weekend as well as all this saving-lives stuff. Someone had to bring home the bacon.

***

‘Is that Garth?’ Sam asked incredulously as they pulled up to the curb of the house. It was. Dean had spotted him a way down the road. Garth actually turning up in person on the case probably meant good things. With any luck he’d brought something with him they could use to stab this bitch.

‘It is,’ Cas said, as though it needed saying. Dean just grunted, killing the engine and opening his door. It was only when Garth started walking towards them that Dean realised he had Killer with him. The dog was wandering along with its usual puzzled expression. Wonderful.

‘Any particular reason you brought the dog? Do we not trust Charlie to look after him now?’ Dean asked. Garth just grinned, stepped up and handed the lead to Sam.

‘There you go, my man. One secret weapon.’

They all looked down at the dog skeptically. Killer looked back up with big sad saucer eyes and a lolling tongue. He wasn’t anybody’s definition of a secret weapon as far as Dean could see.

‘What,’ Sam asked. ‘This thing allergic to dog slobber?’

‘No,’ Garth said, grinning like he found the entire thing hilarious. ‘It’s a fox spirit, apparently dogs are really good at sniffing them out and freaking them out so I brought you a Kumiho detector!’

‘Couldn’t you have borrowed a bigger dog?’ Sam asked, leaning down to ruffle Killer’s fur. Dean nodded. He might be of the opinion that Killer was getting far too big but that was far too big to be eating his food, not to be fighting fox demons that could even get the drop on an angel.

‘Killer will do fine,’ Garth said with a lazy shrug. ‘I’m going to leave him with you anyway, I need to get back and man the phones.’

‘Oh no, he is not coming in my car,’ Dean protested, taking a step to put himself between the Impala and the dog. ‘You just take him back right now.’

‘You need him,’ Garth said with a shrug. ‘Once you find the fox all you have to do is stab it with iron, so Killer is really all you need.’

‘He may be right,’ Cas said, stepping up to Dean’s side. ‘I remember legend saying that the Kumiho fears dogs. Killer may save us all,' he said gravely, patting the mutt.

‘In that case,’ Dean said with a sign, ‘I’m starting to think we might be doomed after all.’

***

'She's eighty-three, suffered from dementia but no previous episodes of having wandered off at night -' the police officer, Boden, said, reading off her report while they all stared down at the corpse.

'Didn't have a history of having played with dangerous animals?' Dean asked. There was more left of this lady than there had been with Brian, but still.

'Not that I'm aware of,' said Boden drily, lifting one corner of her mouth in a smile. 'But I think we can now definitely put the 'murderer' theory to rest in favour of the 'nasty predator' one. Which means it's no longer my problem.' She beckoned to one of her lackeys, or whatever they called them in the police. 'Put a call through to the Forest Service, would you?'

Sam and Killer had been out walking the perimeter (and it had been interesting trying to persuade law enforcement that their spindly-legged Kumiho-detector was actually a police dog in training. 'He's part of an experimental drug dog/SWAT initiative,' Sam had said earnestly), but they had walked the whole big loop and now Dean could see them out of the corner of his eye, coming in.

Killer didn't look thrilled about things.

'Look, when you get a report off the rangers, I'd appreciate seeing it,' Dean said. 'My partner here and I are part of this whole new, you know, better communication between services thing, we're supposed to liase with everyone.'

Boden gave him another look, raising one eyebrow and lingering in a way that if they were in a bar would tell Dean he was _so_ in there. On instinct or autopilot or something, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. 'Tell you what, you just give me a call when you hear anything,' he said, and risked a wink. 'I'm sure we can work together harmoniously.'

'I might just do that,' said Boden, smiling.

Sam coughed, just behind Dean's shoulder, and Killer was growling so hard he was practically vibrating across the ground like a dropped cellphone.

Cas's face made something hurt in Dean's gut when he turned, and he didn't know why. He was just doing his thing, right?

'I'm gonna head back,' said Sam, clearing his throat and tugging a little on Killer's leash. 'He needs his dinner. You two can handle the rest of this, right?' He sounded a bit … pointed.

‘Of course we can,’ Dean said with a dismissive wave. He turned back to find Boden smiling at him in a way they didn’t teach them in police officer training. He winked to her then turned to Cas.

‘Sense anything suspicious?’

‘The feeling of the thing is very strong here, it may still be in the area watching us. I would suggest returning in the evening when the rest of the team has dispersed.’

‘Sounds good,’ Dean said with a nod. ‘Alright, I’m going to go look at the actual murder site. You want to go for a walk, see if you can pinpoint the location of this thing more accurately?’

‘That is unnecessary,’ Cas said, but as Dean raised his eyebrow he sighed and moved away, giving Dean room to work. He didn’t really want Cas to go, he just also didn’t really want Cas to see this either.

‘So,’ he said, sliding up to Boden. He stood a little bit too close for polite conversation. He’d learnt early that chicks liked a little flirting. ‘Are you going to be stationing a guard here this evening?’

‘I don’t think there’s much point,’ she said, angling her body towards him. Something in his head was screaming that there was a better way than this but right now it was hard to think what could be better than this. ‘If it’s an animal attack, there’s no need to keep watch here.’

‘Oh, I agree,’ Dean said, smiling for her. She smiled back and that felt nice. Familiar. Like he could take her home and have sex with her and it wouldn’t mean anything other than two people having a good time. He missed that, sometimes. With Charlie being so fixated on him and Cas she tended to look like someone had shot her puppy every time he even approached a woman, and that was kind of a downer. But he liked women. He did like women.

He glanced up at Cas, standing some way away and looking. Watching him and clearly he’d been listening to Charlie too much because suddenly it felt like cheating, being stood here like this. Boden lifted a hand to stroke his arm but the moment was broken. He stepped back, signalling Cas to come over.

‘Thanks for your help,’ he said, stepping back. ‘We need to get going.’

Boden smiled again and gave him a little wave. He turned quickly and walked, Cas close behind him.

***

Back at the motel room, Cas still wouldn't let Dean out of his sight, apparently, which made changing out of his Fed suit into something slightly more low-key a bit more awkward than it would usually be. Sam was still mid-sulk, having got back before them and sorted himself out. Killer was sprawled over Sam's lap, begging for a belly-rub - something that would normally have Sam smiling that soft, guilty little smile that Dean pretended, for the sake of everyone's dignity, he couldn't see, but not this time. When Dean and Cas walked in, Sam hurriedly shoved his phone back into his pocket yet-a-fucking-gain as if it wasn't blatantly obvious he'd been staring at it.

Something was definitely up there. But Dean suddenly couldn't be bothered. Sam was a grownup, he could work it out. Meanwhile, Dean wanted to go out. Definitely to find some dinner, maybe to a bar after. Yes. That would be a good idea.

'Come on, Sasquatch, time for food,' he said, throwing a sock at Sam and watching him bat it out of midair without really paying attention. 'Up and at 'em.'

'Piss off, Dean,' Sam growled, but he shrugged his jacket on.

Cas was eyeing them both, kind of suspiciously. 'I'm not sure -' he started, and Dean cut him off.

'Dinner, Cas. For us poor mortals, it's not optional. You want us in fighting form, don't you?'

'I suppose,' said Cas, looking down for a moment. 'But we should bring Killer,' he said.

Sam snorted. 'To a diner?'

'To wherever it is that you choose to eat,' Cas said. 'This Kumiho could be anywhere, and we should be prepared.'

'Guess we can't argue with that, huh Sammy?' Dean said, grabbing Killer's leash from the little motel table. Killer bounced up off the bed enthusiastically, tail going a million miles an hour in excitement.

'Guess not,' Sam agreed.

***

The diner waitress was a stunner. A real find. Dean barely noticed what he ordered, in the end, because she smiled when he smiled, and he stretched out in his seat and gave her the full treatment.

Sam kicked him under the table.

The girl - Louise - went to get their orders. Dean watched her go appreciatively. And when he mentally turned back to the table, Cas was watching him. Dean's gut hurt a little again. It was weird.

'You might wanna turn it down,' Sam hissed at him. 'She'll have a dad, Dean, and probably brothers and uncles and this is so, so not the time for us to get run out of town with a shotgun.'

'That only happened once,' Dean shot back.

'Alternatively, we have an extremely powerful trickster creature to hunt and we cannot afford distractions,' Cas muttered. 'Unless you think another corpse would enable us to gather more data.'

Dean blinked. Okay, when did Cas learn biting sarcasm?

‘I’m just blowing off some steam,’ Dean protested. ‘I do this kind of thing all the time, it’s harmless fun.’

‘You haven’t done this kind of thing in years,’ Sam protested. Dean bit the inside of his cheek to keep from commenting. Alright, maybe it had been a while but all the more reason to start again. He needed to remind people just who the hell he was. Remind himself just who the hell he was. It wasn’t hurting anything.

‘Yeah, well maybe it’s time I started again,’ Dean said, leaning back to get a better look at their waitress. Cas jabbed him in the rib and he turned back with a frown. ‘Hey, what the hell was that for?’

‘We’re on a hunt,’ Cas said. ‘A very dangerous hunt against a very powerful monster.’

‘Yeah, and we have our furry secret weapon,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘I don’t even know why you guys are worrying about this. There are more important things in life.’

‘Nothing in life is more important than keeping you alive,’ Cas insisted, gripping his arm tight like he was trying to raise him from Perdition all over again. ‘I will not lose sight of that.’

‘Just chill out,’ Dean said, leaning back with a flirty grin as Louise came round with their orders. She smiled for him and leant over just far enough to give her a perfect view of the goods which he definitely appreciated. Cas’s grip on his arm tightened until he was forced to yank his arm away.

‘Watch it, or you’re going to be the one who breaks one of my bones.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Cas said immediately. Pulling back. He fixed his eyes on the table and didn’t look up even when his order was shoved in front of him. Sam was back to playing with his phone under the table but let him. Let him play with his phone and let Cas sulk. Dean didn’t need them. He was going to eat his damn burger and flirt with the damn waitress and nobody was going to stop him.

***

'I will check the perimeter,' said Cas as they approached their motel again. He had Killer's leash, and the mutt was actually staying to heel and behaving for him. Apparently Cas spoke Dog or something. 'It would be wise if you would check your wards and salt-lines, too.'

'Sure,' said Dean distractedly. He curled his fingers around the diner napkin with Louise's number on it that she'd managed to slip into his pocket. He had a phonecall to make. Checking the wards wouldn't exactly take a long time. Sam could take care of it.

'We'll make sure the place is secure, Cas, don't worry,' said Sam, knocking shoulders with Dean as if Dean wasn't paying attention.

'Good,' said Cas, clucking to Killer and walking away. He walked like a soldier still, Dean noticed, even though he was pretty much the least soldier-looking guy ever, particularly when he had a half-grown mongrel dog with one inside-out ear bouncing along beside him.

Dean fumbled for his phone as soon as they got inside the door and the salt lines, but Sam turned and shoved him in the chest before he could get away. 'I can't believe you, man,' Sam said, scowling. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?'

'Excuse me?' Dean said, squinting at him. 'I'm making a phonecall, something you appear to be totally incapable of doing these days, apparently.'

'That's exactly what I'm talking about,' Sam fumed. 'What is with you today, Dean? You're acting like … like you used to. Slutting around.'

'I'm just sharing the wealth, man,' Dean protested.

'See? You haven't talked like this in years. It's like you're twenty six again and you can't even keep it in your pants for more than half a day. Believe me, Dean, I lived through your alley-cat phase, I know what it looks like. What I don't get is why it's resurfacing.'

Dean shrugged, because he really, honestly had no idea what Sam was getting at. Maybe he'd just found his feet again, would that be so unusual? 'We're back on the road again, on a case,' he said. 'I'm just enjoying myself.'

'And Cas?' Sam asked. 'Was that just enjoying yourself?'

'Sam, I swear to God, what is with you and Charlie and this … this _thing_ about Cas? Nothing's going on!'

'Does he know that? He was in your bed this morning, Dean, remember?'

Dean sighed, scrunched his eyes closed and counted to five for some patience before he said, 'He was up all goddamn night pacing. I told him to stay still because I couldn't sleep - dude lay down. That's all.'

Sam gave Dean a searching look. 'Maybe that is all, but think about it, Dean. You let him into your bed. He's watched humans for hundreds of years, Dean. You think he doesn't know what two people sharing a bed usually means? He's not stupid. And now you're suddenly Casanova again like you haven't been since pretty much the moment he showed up in your life.'

'So, what, you think I'm having some kind of crisis?'

Sam shrugged, crossed his arms across his chest. 'Gotta admit, Dean, looks kind of suspicious.'

That was it. Dean was sick of being on the receiving end of all the telling-off. 'You know what else looks suspicious?' he said, stepping into Sam's space. 'You, the poster-boy for effective communication skills, ignoring all your goddamn phonecalls.'

'I'm just trying to stay on topic here,' Sam said, scowling. 'Don't make this about me, Dean.'

'No, I think I will,' Dean said. 'Because that is the lamest goddamn excuse I've ever heard. You wanna know what I think, Sammy? I think you're jealous. I think Kevin's got the life you always wanted and now you can't even stand to talk to him. And I think it's really fucking petty, the way you're blowing him off, and yet you sit there all self-righteous and tell me I can't look at a girl because you think it makes my best friend sad.'

Sam opened his mouth to say something, but Dean didn't want to hear it. He turned on his heel instead and headed for the door. 'Think about it, Sam. Just think about it. Remember the last time you ignored Kevin's calls?'

And he knew it was unfair, and he knew the exact face Sam would be pulling, but he didn't care. Dean needed some goddamn air. He slammed the door behind himself.

Who the hell did Sam think he was, talking to him like that? He did what the hell he liked. He was going to do what the hell he liked. Sam could stay here with his jealousy and his missed calls, Dean was going to go get laid.

He started off towards the car, but movement over by the end of the car park drew his attention. Someone stood there, not Cas but a woman. The police officer from earlier, the one who’d flirted. He couldn’t remember her name right now but why did that matter? She was here, he needed someone, she’d do.

He pocketed the keys and started across the lot. She smiled when she saw him coming, bringing a hand up to her hair and he grinned, checking her out. She winked at him and he knew this was it. He was going to do this. Going to be the kind of guy who did what he wanted and then he’d show them all. He’d show Sam and Cas and Charlie and anyone else who questioned him that Dean Winchester still had it.

He stopped in front of her. Up close there was something predatory about her smile. Something not right...but it was too late to go back now. He reached out, lay a hand on her arm.

‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Not safe for you to be out here alone at night. Want me to walk you home.’

‘Oh, I don’t think it’s me who isn’t safe,’ she said, bringing her hand up and laying it over his. Her nails were sharp and they dug in to his flesh. ‘Come back here with me, there’s something you’ll want to see.’

‘I’m sure I’ll want to see anything you show me,’ Dean said, leaning in.

Then the barking started. He looked up to see Cas had rounded the building with Killer. Killer, who had apparently slipped his lead, leaving it dangling uselessly from Cas’s hand, and was coming bounding towards them. Dean stepped forward, trying to block her from his crazy dog but Killer dove straight under his arm and clamped his jaws around her leg.

‘Killer, no,’ he shouted, lunging to grab the dog. 'Bad dog, no biting!'

Something flickered. It took a second for his brain to process it, it was like when the TV picture got broken. Like a shattering mirror. A woman was stood there, then she began to fail, lines flickering and revealing another shape underneath.

‘Shit,’ he shouted, scrambling backward. ‘Shit - Killer, bite _harder_.’

The form that came into view as the illusion failed was that of a fox. It stood on its back legs, as big as the woman it had been impersonating. Its eyes burnt red and behind it, nine tails spread out like a fan.

He was really damn glad something had interrupted before he took that to bed.

‘Dean,’ Sam yelled, and Dean turned in time to catch the knife Sam sent flying across the ground towards him. He picked it up and wasted no time, charging the Kumiho while Killer was still yanking at its leg. It twisted but couldn’t get away. He caught it in the side, making it drop to the ground, then finished it with a second blow, straight through the heart.

‘Shit,’ Sam said behind him, close by now, and suddenly it was like smoke lifting. Dean felt like he’d been seeing his own emotions through a prism, somehow magnified and distorted. He’d felt things, done things, that he wouldn't have done and as the fox lay dying the last of her tricks faded and he saw it all for what it was.

Sam might maybe have not been too far off the mark.

He turned to find Sam had sat down, head in his hands, a few feet away on the concrete. Castiel was gone.

***

They left the motel room. Let the owner deal with all the paint and salt - Dean really wasn't feeling the cleanup right now. Right now, he wanted to be driving. Going home - taking Sammy home. Killer snuffled in his sleep on the back seat, on a pile of Sam's clothes, a desperate attempt to stop the car from smelling like dog that Dean was pretty sure wasn't going to work, but oh well. At least they tried?

They made it half an hour, both staring at the hood of the Impala eating up the white lines on the road, before Sam said anything. 'Guess Garth was right. About Killer.'

'Yeah. Suppose they're both worth their feed after all,' Dean agreed, shrugging.

'I just … that thing got right to us.' Sam was biting his lip, Dean noticed out of the corner of his eye. 'Maybe the second we hit town - maybe that first time out in the scrub. Doesn't matter. It was right in our heads, Dean. We could have ended up like Brian.'

'So all that stuff we said, the things we did - those were all tricks, right? That was it messing with us?' Dean asked, although he had a pretty good idea. He desperately wanted Sam to just say yes.

But Sam shrugged. 'I guess. But it's a trickster. You ever met one of those that would make shit up when it could just torture you with the truth instead?' He still wouldn't meet Dean's eyes. 'It made us do stuff we wouldn't, sure. But … I dunno, man. I don't think it was inventing its own ammo.'

Ahead, a road sign told them they were leaving some town Dean had barely even noticed blurring by. Killer made a noise, rolling over in Sam's plaid, and Dean twitched because it could have been the flap of cloth, or wings.

'Yeah,' he said under his breath. 'That's what I'm afraid of.'

He let silence fall after that, listening to the purr of the car engine and thinking. What he’d done today, it meant something - and that wasn’t something he was ready to think about yet. What it might mean, what he might have to do if he accepted what it meant. Things were good now. Things worked; for the first time in his life he was something like happy. He didn’t want to change it, not now. It wasn’t fair to ask him to.

Sam was apparently having the same kind of thoughts because he pulled his phone out, unlocking it and then locking it again quickly like he couldn't make his mind up.

‘You know,’ Dean said, glad for the distraction. ‘I don’t know why you’re ignoring Kevin but if there’s something you want to talk about...’

‘Are you actually offering to talk about feelings?’ Sam asked with a smirk, surprising a laugh out of Dean.

‘Hey, don’t get too used to it. We’re not going to be doing this every day. But, seriously Sam. Us two, when we keep things inside they seem to go from bad to worse. Maybe just … just let it out?’

‘I can’t,’ Sam said, voice soft and low. ‘Not right now. It’s not that I don’t appreciate … I just need a little time to myself first to clear my head.’

‘Well, alright,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘But if it gets too much, whatever it is, you come find me.’

‘I will, Dean,’ Sam promised. ‘Thanks.’

***

‘Oh God, you’re back, thank God,’ Charlie yelled, running out of the front door towards them.

‘What’s the matter?’ Dean asked, reaching for his gun. He scanned the area but he couldn’t see anything unusual. He glanced over and Sam was out of the car too, knife drawn.

‘We need to clean!’ Charlie declared, stopping a few feet from him. ‘My internet girlfriend is coming to visit this weekend, we need to clean the entire house.’

‘Your girlfriend is visiting?’ Sam asked, sighing and putting the knife away. ‘We thought you were being attacked or something.’

‘This is so much worse,’ Charlie protested, grabbing Dean’s gun. He let her take it with a roll of his eyes. ‘She’s a normal person. We need to make the house look like normal people live here. No guns, no books of lore, no wards on display.’

‘No,’ Dean said. ‘Look, you can hide the books if you want but don’t touch the damn wards.’

‘She’s going to think we’re Satanists,’ Charlie cried, running a hand through her hair. ‘She will. She’ll think we’re Satanists and then she’ll never talk to me again and I really, really like her.’ She finished the sentence by reaching over and grabbing Dean’s arm, like she could compel him to realise how serious this was. He reached over and took the gun from her other hand, putting the safety back on and putting it away.

‘Charlie, we just got back. I’m gonna unpack the car, wash up, then sleep. Sam'll deal with your breakdown.’

‘Hey,’ Sam protested, but Dean was already shaking Charlie off and moving towards the house to get a beer. Looked like he was going to need one.

***

Dean woke with a start, reaching for the knife he kept under his pillow. It took him a second to realise the sound that had woken him was angel wings. Cas was stood by the bed, facing away from Dean.

‘Hey,’ Dean said, letting himself relax. He withdrew his hand and reached out instead, beckoning Cas closer. ‘I thought it might be awhile before you showed up again. Not that I’m complaining.’

‘I needed to think,’ Cas said, still not looking or moving closer.

‘Well, that’s good. We all need to think sometimes,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘Think about anything interesting?’

‘Yes,’ Cas said, shifting a little. ‘Though now I’m here I’m finding it hard to talk about.’

‘You got something to say, just let it out,’ Dean said. ‘Though can it wait until the morning. I’m kind of tired, Cas.’

‘I’d rather say it now,’ Cas said. He turned slowly so he was facing the bed then let his eyes track upwards to somewhere around Dean’s shoulder. Dean sighed and leant down until they had eye contact. If Cas had something so important to say he had to turn up at this hour of the morning, it deserved eye contact.

‘Dean,’ Cas said, his voice soft and low.

‘Yeah,’ Dean said. ‘Go on Cas, you can talk to me.’ It was probably something about the damn fox. Cas had been acting as weird as the rest of them, it must have got inside his head too. And he wasn't as used to good ol' repression of nasty feelings as Dean and Sam were.

‘I have reflected on my actions today. I know the Kumiho distorted my feelings, but that does not mean I can’t acknowledge the underlying nature of what I feel, what drives my actions. I did think I might not tell you, but that seemed remiss. You deserve to know. ‘

‘Just tell me, Cas. If it’ll make you feel better. I’ll listen.’

‘Dean,’ Cas said, leaning forward again. They were close now, the kind of close that got Charlie thinking the wrong thing. ‘Dean, I’m sorry if I’m expressing this wrong, but I am in love with you. I would like to add a romantic and a sexual element to our relationship.’

Dean blinked. For a second it was like the words were too big, he couldn’t take them in. Hell, it took him a second to realise anything had been said after 'love'. Love. It was ridiculous. Cas didn’t love him. In a Heavenly way, maybe. But not ... not like a human. Not like Dean could love, not that he did. It was wrong and it was probably just Cas misunderstanding.

They needed to put this thing to rest.

‘Look, Cas,’ he said, leaning back a little. ‘Charlie’s just...’

‘This isn’t about Charlie,’ Cas interrupted. ‘You think I'm naive, but you forget that I have observed your species since you first emerged from the sea and even before that. I know love, I know your love and I know how you express it. Maybe one day when these bodies are long forgotten I can show you the depth of love I am capable of but for now I wish to express my love for you in a way you can understand. I wish to be your partner. I wish to be close to you, to share your life and your joys. I had thought you might want the same thing.’

‘It’s not,’ Dean said, struggling for words. He felt every part of Cas’s speech like another weight settling on him and he couldn’t breathe for the mass of the feelings pressing into his chest. ‘I just … it’s not like that, Cas.’

He willed Cas to understand.

‘It is for me,’ Cas said, sad now. He drew back a little but it didn’t seem to help Dean to breathe. ‘I am sorry, I would not have said this if I did not believe you wanted it. Maybe I do still have much to learn on the subject of human love.’

Dean felt like he was watching someone else say, ‘I’m sorry, Cas -’

‘As am I,’ Cas said, and then he was gone.

‘Wait,’ Dean said, sitting up in bed, but Cas didn’t return. 'Cas -'

But there was no answer.

Later, he decided that was probably for the best. He didn’t, couldn’t, return Cas’ feelings. Maybe it was better for them to just be apart for a while.

He didn't sleep the rest of the night.


End file.
